Consider a Sunfire 600x2 and a Sunfire 400x7. Both have 18 mosfets and I assume the same power supply. Given this, would it be better(louder) to bi-amp a pair of speakers with the 400x7 or just use the 600x2 in stereo mode? I am thinking no matter what, each can only draw so much current from the wall. What say you???

IMHO the 600-2 would be better. That's what this amp was made to do, supply 600 watts to each channel. However, I can see where you are coming from if you bi-amp 400 watts each input to your speakers. IDK, that's a good question Wayne!! Of course do you think you'll EVER pull that much power??? Just my $0.02 worth.

I'm currently just running a 15 amp cuircuit, so I don't think I could draw the max potential of either amp. But consider 600 watts divided between woofer and tweeter and 400 watts into EACH. Also consider that BOTH amps are using the same guts, just more channel boards in the 400x7. Also WHAT IF supplying power was not a problem(not limited by the 15 amps currently).

The 2 channel amps are beefed up with much larger capacitors then the multi-channel amps plus as you stated the 2 channel amps have many more output devices per channel. I think either would be just fine but if you had really demanding speakers and what to drive them hard I'd stick with the 2 channel amp as that's what it was designed to do. The multi-channels were meant to drive theater systems where not all channels are driven simultaneously for any length of time.

Unless you are using separate amps, each with its own power supply and active crossovers, you aren't bi-amping.

Political Correctness...defined

A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

In a recent press conference, President Obama remarked, "If I had a city, it would look just like Detroit."

It may not be considered "true" bi-amping but you do get more power to the speakers with, at the very minimum, the advantages of bi-wiring. I run my Chorus II's with 4 channels of my Cinema Grand and the extra power is very noticeable.

A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

In a recent press conference, President Obama remarked, "If I had a city, it would look just like Detroit."

I've read all that before, it actually convinced me not to "truly" bi-amp my speakers as eliminating the passive crossovers or "balancing networks" would of been very problematic with my particular speakers.

Take this into consideration also:
I have a "Y" power cable for the PT-2400 so I can run both channels with one wall plug. With my "killawatt" device the 2400 pulls about 1.05 amps at idle. At reasonable listening level it goes up to about 1.5 amp and cranked up jamming hard it will only bounce up to around 6 or 7 amps max.

kingman wrote:Consider a Sunfire 600x2 and a Sunfire 400x7. Both have 18 mosfets and I assume the same power supply. Given this, would it be better(louder) to bi-amp a pair of speakers with the 400x7 or just use the 600x2 in stereo mode? I am thinking no matter what, each can only draw so much current from the wall. What say you???

I say you have too many amps. Give me one and you won't have to even consider the question!

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kingman wrote:Consider a Sunfire 600x2 and a Sunfire 400x7. Both have 18 mosfets and I assume the same power supply. Given this, would it be better(louder) to bi-amp a pair of speakers with the 400x7 or just use the 600x2 in stereo mode? I am thinking no matter what, each can only draw so much current from the wall. What say you???

I say you have too many amps. Give me one and you won't have to even consider the question!

kingman wrote:Consider a Sunfire 600x2 and a Sunfire 400x7. Both have 18 mosfets and I assume the same power supply. Given this, would it be better(louder) to bi-amp a pair of speakers with the 400x7 or just use the 600x2 in stereo mode? I am thinking no matter what, each can only draw so much current from the wall. What say you???

I say you have too many amps. Give me one and you won't have to even consider the question!

I have considered doing this because my DQ20's are not a bi-amp style speaker. My Audio Control Richter Scale has a Linkwitz-Riley cross-over built in and is made for bi-amping. I can pull the lid off and change the cross-over frequency to whatever wanted.

Would I just cut the woofer wires and run them to a seperate set of terminals on the back of the speaker, then just use two amps? Is it that simple? I think these speakers cross the woofer at 400Hz.

Crossover technology can be rather complex and typically have more to do then just start and stop bandwidth, they deal with phase, time, impedance etc and are often times referred to as "balancing" networks. I don't know anything about your specific speakers but I would recommend doing some research, possibly finding someone else who has already done it. The whole subject just turned into a big can of worms for me and I opted to just keep the original design with higher quality parts and had them made bi-wire / amp capable.

jjptkd wrote:Crossover technology can be rather complex and typically have more to do then just start and stop bandwidth, they deal with phase, time, impedance etc and are often times referred to as "balancing" networks. I don't know anything about your specific speakers but I would recommend doing some research, possibly finding someone else who has already done it. The whole subject just turned into a big can of worms for me and I opted to just keep the original design with higher quality parts and had them made bi-wire / amp capable.

I kinda figured there was more to it. Its been turning into worms for me too, Ill just leave them alone and might experiment with some cheaper speakers I got laying around.